F1 tornado, Bunker Hill, West Virginia, July 30, 1998

1. F040 to 72 mph

   Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.

2. F173 to 112 mphthis tornado

   Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.

3. F2113 to 157 mph

   Considerable damage. Roofs torn off well-built houses, frame homes shifted on their foundations, mobile homes destroyed, large trees snapped or uprooted, cars lifted off the ground.

4. F3158 to 206 mph

   Severe damage. Whole stories of well-built houses destroyed, large buildings badly damaged, trains overturned, trees debarked, heavy cars lifted and thrown.

5. F4207 to 260 mph

   Devastating damage. Well-built houses leveled, structures with weak foundations moved some distance, cars thrown and large missiles generated.

6. F5261 to 318 mph

   Incredible damage. Strong frame houses swept off their foundations, car-sized missiles thrown more than 100 meters, steel-reinforced concrete badly damaged, high-rise buildings deformed.

7. Unrated

   The survey recorded a tornado but could not put a number on it, most often because it crossed open country and damaged nothing a rating can be read from.

Rating

F1

Date

July 30, 1998

Touchdown

6:00 PM EDT (22:00 UTC)

Path length

1.0 miles (1.6 km)

Path width

150 yards (137 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$80,000

County

Berkeley County

Touchdown point

39.320, -78.050

Lift-off point

39.320, -78.030

Record number

546

A pulse-severe mini-supercell thunderstorm rapidly developed near the border of Frederick Co, Virginia and Berkeley Co during the late afternoon. Shortly after the storm exhibited strong low- and mid-level rotation, a combination of large hail, damaging straight-line winds, and a tornado occurred in the Bunker Hill area.The most impressive event was a brief tornado, witnessed for much of its path by a local resident. The twister touched down along Tory Town Road and continued east-southeast along Sam Mason Road, crossing Interstate 81 before dissipating shortly after crossing federal highway 11. The tornado had multiple vortices - the eyewitness noted at least 5 spinning finger-shaped tendrils as the twister passed.Damage on Tory Town Road included a pushed in a wall of a home, one uprooted tree which totalled a parked sport-utility vehicle, and a destroyed barn. Along and just north of Sam Mason Road, damage included numerous snapped and twisted tree tops. One uprooted tree smashed into a home causing substantial damage to an adjacent shop. Five windows were blown out. Along Sam Mason Road east of Interstate 81 , at least a dozen large trees were uprooted, and several sheds were damaged. One of the sheds was large - 12 by 36 feet. Two horses inside sustained minor injuries (from cuts).Straight-line wind damage occurred about a mile northeast of the tornado's location - along and near Runnymeade Road. Two barns were blown down, and several large trees fell, one onto a vehicle and another onto a house. Hail, ranging in size from marble to occasionally golf ball, fell - in one case prior to the tornado touch down.Allegheny Power estimated between 500 and 1,000 customers lost electricity during the storms.

From NOAA NCEI's Storm Events Database, the narrative the local forecast office wrote for Storm Data.

No tornado warning for this county appears in the archive as in force at the moment the tornado touched down.

Every warning and watch covering the touchdown point that day, from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service products. Lead time is measured from the issue of the warning in force to the touchdown time in the database, both of which were recorded to the minute by different people.

The Storm Prediction Center had this point in a General Thunderstorms Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 10:56 UTC.

SPC's Day 1 convective outlook as it stood when the tornado began, read at the touchdown point. The same archive is on the radar archive.

The radiosonde launches on either side of the tornado, from the nearest station that was launching then, drawn and analyzed the way Storm Lab does: the same diagram, the same parcel and shear definitions SPC's mesoanalysis uses.

The Sterling radar (KLWX), 61 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 21:59 UTC.

Open the radar archive at this moment, over the track

Reflectivity and velocity, decoded from the Level II archive in the browser. Volumes take a few seconds to open the first time.

The live radar over the trackEvery 1998 tornado in West VirginiaEvery tornado in West Virginia since 1950Warnings in force in West Virginia nowThe forecast where you are

5 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

Ratings are the survey's, read off the damage rather than measured; the rating scale is above. Tornado counts rise through the record as reporting improved, so a year in the 1950s is not comparable with one today except for the strongest tornadoes, which were always noticed.

NOAA Storm Prediction Center tornado database, 1950-2025, the official record kept by NOAA's Storm Prediction Center.